The author's unique 10-pointer was just one of a number of big bucks he saw in three days of hunting Mill Iron Ranches near Wellington. Photo by Jim Musil

At first glance, you wouldn't proclaim the eastern Texas Panhandle a great place for trophy whitetails. But on closer examination, the region's vast prairies and hidden canyons prove to be just that.

For years I've heard whispered rumors about this region's overlooked trophy potential. However, prior to 2005, I'd never hunted there. Somehow, when hunting whitetails in Texas I just couldn't pull myself away from the South Texas Brush Country, which is rightly famous for its big-antlered bucks. Finally, though, I decided the time had come to see what all of those Panhandle rumors were about.

I'm glad I did . . . and I'm wondering why it took me so long.

What ultimately got me to the northern end of the state was a gracious invitation from landowners Al and Don Allred. Their 30,000-acre low-fenced property, which goes by the name of Mill Iron Ranches, lies near the Oklahoma border in Collingsworth County. It was on this ground that in 2004, Al's son, Hunt, shot a massive non-typical, a buck so big that he ranked No. 1 for the year in the Texas Big Game Awards. So when Al asked if I'd like to hunt the ranch that produced this 235-inch monster, I naturally jumped at the chance. I hoped to learn a lot more about the Panhandle's potential, get video footage for use on a future episode of North American Whitetail Television and maybe even bag a big buck of my own.

The original plan called for cameraman Jim Musil and me to get to the ranch two days after Thanksgiving. However, illness delayed my arrival in Texas by a week. When Jim and I finally drove onto the property on Dec. 2 to meet Don, we found that the rut was waning, and that the biggest bucks had suddenly gone into hiding. The Boone and Crockett-class giants the landowners and their employees had been seeing just a week earlier had once again gone into hiding.

No matter. In three days we still saw hundreds of deer and got plenty of good video footage. On the final evening of our stay, I even shot a distinctive buck we'd first seen only an hour into our hunt.

The buck was recognizable at a glance, mainly because of the end of his right antler. Whether that down-turned "point" is a true drop tine or the end of the main beam is, in my view, debatable. But what I never questioned, when I first saw him with a doe in a brushy draw around sunup that morning, was that he'd look great on my wall.

After spotting the buck from Don's truck, we decided to make a play on him. Along with Don, Jim and ranch cowboy Jackie Bell, I eased off into the brush and tried to get into position for a shot. I finally caught a glimpse of the lovestruck buck through the low mesquites and tall grass, but there was never any legitimate shot opportunity. Our only lasting evidence of his existence was a few seconds of footage Jim got as the buck slipped through the cover in pursuit of the doe. The pair finally vanished for good, leaving us little choice but to move on and look for another late-rutting buck.

The next two days were spent not just hunting but also getting to know this fascinating part of the world. What I discovered was a place that has quickly become one of my all-time favorites for whitetail hunting.

Again, it doesn't have the look of classic "deer woods." The Panhandle is lip-chappingly dry countryl there are only a few significant drainages, and it is around water that most of the trees and wildlife are concentrated. Mill Iron Ranches is split for many miles by the Salt Fork of the Red River, which is wide but in few places as much as knee-deep. Numerous dry washes and canyons lead down to the river from the ridges on either side, offering wildlife pockets in which to escape icy winds in the winter and a scorching sun in the summer. A handful of windmills also dot the landscape, drawing water from wells drilled deep beneath the grass, sagebrush, mesquite and shin oak cover.

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